Tethered Shooting with Photoshop Lightroom

LCDs on the backs of cameras are growing ever larger, but nothing compares to seeing your photos on your computer screen. That's where tethered shooting comes in, connecting (tethering) your camera to your computer. And you probably already own just about everything you need to get started, says Matt Kloskowski.

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As a photographer, you can quickly evaluate a photo on your computer screen
much better than you can on the small screen on the back of the camera.

You can check lighting, exposure, and the sharpness of the photo much more
easily on the computer than on the small LCD.

Clients and art directors can watch photos as they’re being taken; the
images appear directly on the computer screen.

Lightroom has an innate ability to shoot tethered; by changing a few
settings, you can be up and running in a snap.

What You’ll Need

Make sure that you have the following items before you get started:

Camera. We’ll use Nikon and Canon for examples in
this article.

USB cable connecting your camera to your computer. You
should have received one in the box when you bought your camera. Chances are
that it’s still in the box.

Some type of tethered shooting software. Your camera needs
to be connected to the computer, and your computer needs some software on it to
pull off the photos from the camera. (Lightroom doesn’t do this part.)
We’ll cover the options in step 1.

Computer with Lightroom installed and an unused USB port. The computer should be booted and ready to go.